Reviews by Lovely85:

More User Reviews:

A - Pours dark as night, thick and viscous with a half finger mocha foam head that holds for a bit. Medium lacing that stains the glass a bit.

S - As soon as I popped the bottle you could smell the rum, vanilla and chocolate. Once the three glasses were poured, you could smell it 5 feet away. Intense notes of sweet rum, vanilla, oak, chocolate, and hints of dark fruits.

T - The taste follows the nose to a point. Sweet carmel, chocolate, vanilla, dominate the front of the palate, with dark fruits, raisins figs dates plum coming through with tobacco notes that remind me of a mellowed out rum zhukov. Finish lingers and leaves a pleasurable taste in the mouth.

M - Chewy, thick viscous and velvety. Drinks very smooth and wouldn't be tough to dome this myself.

O -Another great beer from Tampa. They are killing it down there and this reminded me of a more chocolate vanilla forward rum zhukov.

Got a growler of this stuff from urwithdave a while back and just couldn't help but open it almost right out of the box. Thanks for thinking of me on this one man.

From a 500ml growler into a snifter
Bottled 21 December 2012

APPEARANCE: Pours out black and viscious but slightly transparent, yielding a small, medium looking tan head with decent retention. Head quickly fades to a faint wisp and ring. Black body and lower levels of carbonation evident. A ring remains but leaves no lacing down the glass. Dark with a nice head, but needs more staying power.

SMELL: A bold nose of roasted malts, dark, pure chocolate, brownies, mocha coffee with a touch of caramel and molasses. Bold and plenty decadent. Bourbon, oak and vanilla in there, as well as lots of coconut, all playing nicely with the roasted, chocolaty base beer. Excellent. Complex, bold, well-balanced and extremely enticing. This is that good.

TASTE: Roasted and chocoalte notes up front with nice pure, dark baker's chocolate before a powerful bourbon barrel finish. Bourbon, vanilla, oak and sweet flavors of caramel, lots of sweet cream and coconut, as well as molasses after the swallow, balanced with a nice dose of bitter dark chocolate. Barrel and base are wonderfully balanced here. The bourbon barrel is a little in forward here with plenty of sweet vanilla cream and coconut sweetness, but the roasted, chocolaty base with browines and molasses is there too. Wonderfully decadent.

PALATE: Medium body and medium levels of carbonation. Slightly prickly and could be heavier on the palate, goes down fine with a slight scratch anf finishes slightly sticky. Some heat lingers.

OVERALL: Phenomenal stuff. The Nose is unreal and the flavor top notch, so only the slightly light and rough palate keep this from virtual perfection. A creamier and somewhat heavier feel would make this other worldly. Very happy to have had the chance to try this beer, and hope to see more Peg's brews on this side of the pond. You've created a monster urwithdave. Cheers!

Taste the rare! Big thanks to Mike for splitting this one - I thought for sure I'd never get the chance to sample it, especially now. Comes in a cool looking 500 mL swing-top. It gluggs out in to the glass, very thick and completely black. No head - even the mere ring that outlines the beer is slow to form; possibly a side-effect of being in a growler for a few months, but my thought (and hope) is that the carb for a brew like this is relatively low anyway, so it shouldn't matter much.

The extra "R" in "RareR" supposedly stands for "rum", as this batch was aged in rum barrels as opposed to whiskey barrels in the regular Rare D.O.S., and the first smell reaffirmed that notion completely. Huge rum character on the nose; boozy rum cake, sweet molten chocolates, graham crackers, molasses, a touch of vanilla, and quite a bit of dark fruits. The fruits consist of plum, grapes, and even a bit of apples, and seem to get stronger as the brew approaches room temp. Rum and sweet molasses still remain the leaders of the pack, though.

The first sip reveals quite a bit more of those sweet dark fruits that were so heavy in the aroma; plums, grapes, black cherries, and even some apple skins. Sweet and creamy chocolates come crashing in, soaked in a boozy rum bath. It seemed a bit quiet at first, but the rum character comes out more and more with each successive sip. The rum, chocolate, and dark fruit combination is pretty highly discernable, giving RareR D.O.S. a nice uniqueness in market that's saturated with stouts.

Waves of malts continue to grow in robustness and complexity with time; molasses, chocolate, caramel, and some brown sugar. The oak and woody character is either very low or just completely buried underneath all of the other flavors. The largest components of the barrel aging are definitely the vanilla and the rum itself. The finish is lightly boozy, never getting too hot, with even a mild finishing tartness from the fruits and a sweetness from the chocolates and molasses. Heavy bodied, thick and a bit chewy with an almost-creamy, slick and oily mouth feel.

It's hard to say whether or not this beer lived up to the "hype", because when a beer receives this much hype, your expectations are often raised to unreachable levels. So I'm going to try and forget those expectations and just say that RareR D.O.S. is a damn fine American imperial stout. Unique in many ways and highly complex. I wasn't expecting so much dark fruit sweetness, but it was integrated nicely and the rum provided a nice change of pace. Super glad I got to try this one, it was awesome - thanks, Mike!

Thanks for sharing Thomas Poured thick like motor oil, with a smell and taste that was reminiscent of Apple brandy huna. Subtle vanilla and booz with great barrel aging characteristics. I didn’t pick up the rum, but def caught the booze. I felt like I needed to keep wiping my teeth when in discussion to avoid looking like a sunk them into liquid brownies

I had the pleasure of tasting this beer on tap at Mikkeller Bar in San Francisco. They do a fantastic job at this bar of serving their beers at optimal temperature. I am confident that I had this beer at its very best thanks to Mikkeller

A - A near-black brown color followed by a thin line of medium-brown as a bed for a thick tan and fluffy head.

S - Light light coffee with sugar, nuts and an unmistakable scent of rum. Blackberries and slightly woody. Inoffensive, and easy to smell without any sting.

T - Hershey's chocolate syrup was the first thing I noticed. The fruit and rum come out around the sides of my tongue while mocha, vanilla, roasted nuts, and spiced wood run over the top. Just fantastic finish. A little more rum in the after taste, but not overpowering - just enough to remind you of what you just tasted

M - Surprisingly light on the tongue and throat. I hear others saying thick and chewy, but I would say it is in the middle somewhere. Very easy to drink, I could drink it fast, so I force myself to enjoy it over time.

O - If this is the only beer I could ever drink for the rest of my life, I would be okay with that. Just fantastic. If I saw this was tap again, I would go out of my way to make a trip to the pub. World class - easily a top-3 for me. Jeez, this is good stuff.

Black throughout. Thick in body, but not quite as heavy or substantial in appearance as a Dark Lord or a Cigar City stout. A fairly large dark brown head initially, especially for the style. It doesn't last too long and slides down the glass fairly quickly, leaving spots of stick down the glass. All in all, a gorgeous barrel-aged imperial stout.

The aroma is really lovely. Rich with dark fruits, thick, rich, sweet, and earthy molasses, a mild vanilla, and layers of chocolate. Mild wood and just a bit of the liquor/spirit bite. Very, very nice.

The flavor is just as good as the aroma. Layers of sticky, decadent, bittersweet chocolates, a bit of the spirit and barrel, dark fruits, and just a hint of coconut. A really exceptional complex, layered, but drinkable imperial stout.

Full in body, low to moderate carbonation for the style, but very drinkable. Incredibly sticky. After some sips, I feel like there's melted caramel or chocolate trying to keep my lips closed with their stick. Something special.

Fantastic. A really special barrel-aged imperial stout. Would gladly drink this one again, and again, and again.